When Louisville coach Rick Pitino told me in July that Kansas had a legitimate chance to have the top two picks in June’s NBA draft, I thought he was nuts.

Let’s face it, Pitino wasn’t exactly stellar when he was in charge of personnel decisions for the Boston Celtics back in the day. So I took it with a grain of salt and quickly moved on to the next topic.

Everyone knew that Andrew Wiggins would be squarely in the equation for the top overall selection, but few had seen Joel Embiid. The 7-footer from Cameroon was a mystery man of sorts.

But Pitino had recruited Embiid and was confident in his potential.

“Skilled. Size. Raw.”

Those were the words Pitino used to describe Embiid, and after watching the freshman in Lawrence in October, I was beyond intrigued.